Went out for a quick hike up Mount Washington on Saturday. I'm not sure how I've never seen or heard of this hike up until now, but it seemed like a nice early season hike.

The trail starts out as a real glute-burner! The trail itself is very rocky so I found myself moving fairly slowly and having to carefully watch my steps. It flattens out and becomes more stable after 0.5 - 0.75 miles or so. There were a couple of trees blocking the trail, but nothing super major or difficult to deal with.

The trail is gorgeous -- not a lot of sweeping views or anything, but winding along these rock faces makes for a really pretty hike. There was even this super cool cave that my dog kept trying to leap up into.

Around ~1700 ft of gain from the trailhead (maybe 2700ft up?) we started to run into snow. We had brought traction devices and I HIGHLY recommend doing that! The snow ends up being pretty consistent and, especially given that it was raining pretty much the whole time we were out, pretty slippery.

All in all the hike worked out as it was supposed to - early season hike just to get the legs moving and ready for some bigger targets during the summer!

I hiked up Mt. Washington via Twin Falls, my favorite way to access the mountain.  Make sure to remove all valuables from your cars as this is a high-prowl trailhead.  Taking precautions might not make your car immune to crime, but at least you won't get anything valuable stolen.  More on that later.

The Twin Falls trail is a pleasant little jaunt through the woods to the viewpoints below, between and above the falls.  This trail is often packed with visitors but there were only a handful of people today (a Tuesday).  I met a nice group of tourists from Finland and maybe a dozen locals but that was it.  Parts of the trail are slick with mud and the stairs near the viewpoints have very tall steps, but they are the only notable obstacles.  The first viewpoint you come to (the one at the saddle w/the bench) is under construction and temporarily closed.

Past Twin Falls, the trail climbs up above I-90 and meets with the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail.  I turned left (east) and walked a few hundred yards to the Mt. Washington Trail on my right.  The trail takes off south into the woods, climbing steeply for the first mile or so.  The lower trail is very rocky and rugged.  There are only a handful, maybe 8, blowdowns to step over or around.  The second half of the climb is snow-covered, but a clear boot path ascends to the summit.  The transition area between the snow-free and snow-covered elevations is a soaking-wet nightmare for the feet.  Once fully on snow, the main trail is well-packed and I only post-holed a few times.  Near the summit the trail becomes steeper and the snowy terrain is narrow, uneven and broken.  You will get soaked pushing through overhanging branches laden with slushy snow.  I found my microspikes to be invaluable here both on the ascent and descent.  Snowshoes are not necessary.

I made it to the top of the hill in a blizzard and ate a snack, fending off a gang of Camp Robbers in the process, before heading back down the mountain to my car.  I didn't see a single other soul on the mountain the entire hike; rare for Mt. WA even in the snow.  I got back to the trailhead at 5pm and was met by a Sheriff's deputy who informed me of every hiker's worst nightmare: vandals broke into my car then saw fit to light it on fire.  Yeah, I'll uh.. just let you process that one for a second.

...

So my evening was spent chilling with the Sheriff and the arson investigator at the trailhead, then I managed to (thanks to Japanese engineering) actually start the car and drive it home.  I had nothing whatsoever in the car, they just decided to smash and burn it anyway.  Apparently they hit several people and locations yesterday in an afternoon crime spree.  Sheriff said Little Si and Mailbox got hit too.  Be careful out there, fellow hikers!

"Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness."

-Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, 1927

This one kicked my butt today, but it was a beautiful day to be out. 

The snow free parts of the trail are very wet and rocky, but nothing too extraordinary. Snow covers the trail starting at around 2100'. The snow is mostly packed down in the center of the trail, but regular soft spots and surprise postholing made me very nervous for my knees and ankles - especially the last 1/3 of the way up. I wanted to change into my microspikes approaching the top but there just wasn't a good place to do it. I was very grateful to have spikes and gaiters for the way down. I wouldn't recommend doing this hike without poles in current conditions. 

I wish I'd worn a long sleeved shirt since, although I was warm enough while moving for just one layer, there is a lot of soggy brush at shoulder height all throughout. 

The final push to the top is the most onerous, both going up and coming down: the trail is very narrow and steep, there were lots of dangerously soft spots for my feet to find, and I feel like I constantly had wet pokey branches in my face. The views of Rainier and the watershed near the top made it worth it. I think.

First time up Mount Washington as a conditioner, definitely more difficult than Mt. Si but still was a beautiful trip. Would caution good boots with good ankle support for the first mile which is extremely rocky.  Last third of the climb is covered in snow, mostly slush or ice, regardless was fairly successful with just Micro-Spikes. I do wish I had brought an iceaxe for the end, just due to the risk of coming back down with a slight rain on the snow and a couple of frustrating slides we had.

Honestly a solid day.

Six cars at the TH when we started out 8:45am SA. We had drizzly rain along the way but partly sunny at the summit. This trail is a steady uphill grind and very rocky until we hit the snow. There was a lot of water and in some places it felt like we were hiking in a creek bed. 2 miles in we put on micro spikes due to snow and ice. We did see a few hikers without spikes but they looked like they were still slipping with every step. We did run into the aggressive birds at the top as mentioned in previous trip reports. It was partly cloudy when we hit the big rocks right before the summit and we were able to enjoy views of the reservoir and mountains. Not my my favorite hike - too rocky!!!